Well i guess im a dumb ass cause i like Big Bang Theory and two in a half men lol!!!

Lol. I don't mind if you like them. I'm just sick of people treating it like the greatest show ever, so I decided to rant about it. I won't judge you for you're tastes :p

Got awkward quick huh lol!!! I like Seinfeld and 3rd rock from the sun to, i just like the comedy of it i cant stand shows like hot in Cleveland, freinds etc but there not the greatest shows ever i mean there ok but definitely not Seinfeld which was my favorite then threes company and some old school ones.

Psh. No, I knew there would be friends on here who enjoyed it. This is my opinion, you don't have to share it.

I think that he meant that he cant stand the show Friends. Which I liked. :P

I like this one too, to be honest. I'm not gonna pretend like it's the second coming, but I find the characters interesting enough even as I'm picking out little inaccuracies and whanot. It's just good entertainment to my mind. It's okay that you don't like it though, Blake! I'm not gonna kill you for it...yet. :P

I meant about it getting awkward. As I said, everyone has their own opinion, and just because I write a blog ripping something to shreds does not mean you shouldn't watch/play it lol. I just don't find it funny at all. The jokes are far too easy and they've all been done before. The actors are great in their roles, but the writing is pathetic IMO.

I enjoyed the first season, then watched the 2nd, was bored by the third, and then gave up.

Yeah, I think I sort of enjoyed the first season too, and then watching later seasons really turned me off it.

its like they say.  The Big Bang Theory, a show about geeks that everybody watches.  Community, a show about everybody that only geeks watch.

Well said sir! Well said. Community is in my top 3 comedies of all time.

I've never watched Community and never wanted to because their commercials play out like the fever dreams of squirrels on acid. Seriously, the commercials make it look retarded. Why (I reason with myself) would I want to waste my time?

I have never seen a commercial fro community.  One of my brothers liked it, so I thought that I would give it a chance.  There is some brilliance to the show.

 Never seen a commercial, but community is far from a fever dream. It's a satire of your standard sitcom tropes, and it's fairly normal in the first season with the occasional genre parody. Season 2 steps it up a notch, with episodes about D&D, quasi zombies, and other aspects of geek culture. It is a celebration of everything geek, and it is one of the best sitcoms ever made. You at least owe it a chance, as the second season is phenomenal.

I tried to find said commercial on youtube but couldn't, which makes me think it might have been exclusive to Hulu or a similar service. Would also explain why no one else has seen it lol. Anyway, sounds like it wasn't a good representation of the show. I'll have to give Community a chance

I accidentally watched five minutes of it one time. Still recovering.

 That made me grin.

I think that The Big Bang Theory is an insult to the nerd/geek/dork populace. I tried watching this show, but all I felt was the need to cringe.

The IT Crowd on the other hand is F***ING AWESOME. Love its sillyness/goofyness.

3rd Rock from the Sun, The Black Adder, Raising Hope, Seinfeld, and Mr. Bean are some of my other all time favorites.

The IT Crowd is pretty darn great. Have you seen Black Books? One of the same writers, but I think it's even funnier, as Dylan Moran is a legend.

No I have not seen, nor heard of Black Books. I've just found a playlist on Youtube with all the episodes, so I will be checking it out for sure. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ah. You'll enjoy it, judging by your tastes :)

I watched the It Crowd for it's Might Boosh connections such as Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade. I liked it fine, but every time I see Noel I ache for another Boosh season. Oh why not more!

I don't ache for another one after seeing the quality of season 3 unfortunately. The IT Crowd is fantastic though.

I like The Big Bang Theory, but I can laugh at myself, too. The show that I think is the biggest steaming pile of shit on TV is Parks and Recreation. Written by some idiot who doesn't have a fucking clue about anything to do with parks or recreation or what people who work in that field do.

OMG! You are not allowed to say bad stuff about Parks and Rec Tami. It's the critic's darling and you know we all have to like shows that the critics like. LOL

I've actually never watched an episode of Parks and Recreation so I have no opinion.

Fair enough. I love that show, but I only really care about the characters and comedy. I guess I can see how you would hate it, it's why doctors hate scrubs. I find it funny and the characters endearing, however.

 It's not that I can't laugh at myself. I want a show that takes a proper evaluation of the many flaws of geek culture, a show that analyses and tears it apart. Big Bang Theory is just about laughing at people who are different to your average person.

To be honest, I think it may be a generational thing. Those of us who grew up geeks in the 80s and early 90s can identify. Most people growing up in your generation, not so much. When I was in high school, beong a geek was something you did your damnedest to hide if you didn't want to deal with constant ridicule and harrassment. Now, it's cool to be a geek.

As for Two and a Half Men, well, if I had to endure more than three minutes of that mindless drivel, I'd stab myself in the eyesocket with a screwdriver.

It wasn't really popular in high school, which is why I hid it and only talked about popular games with my friends. Geek Culture didn't explode until I hit my senior years, so most of high school was spent not embracing it as much as I should.

Spot-on all the way across the board, Tami! :D

I have no problem with BBT, it's not cerebral but then I don't see that it intends to insult computer geeks and gamers either. That's like saying Fawlty Towers and Newhart are an insult to Inn/Hotel owners.  It's just a silly sitcom like hundreds of silly sitcoms that went before it. Nothing to get excited about. 

I used to watch 2.5 Men at the beginning but stopped when I was no longer amused.

Yeah. It's not so much that as how insultingly dumb the show is, and how stupid it thinks it's audience is. It plays a laugh track at the end of almost every sentence, regardless of whether it's funny or not. 

Laugh tracks have always been stupid. I've never seen the point in telling me when to laugh. 

 There are a couple of reasons they're used. It's familiar, people are used to it. Sometimes it's used to try and capture the atmosphere of a comedy gig, though it never works. However, a lot of the time, it's used to mask weak material, or to let people know when to laugh so they don't feel left out if they don't get a joke.

Since I'm an engineer who happens to like geeky things like science, video games, comic books, etc., I often get asked if I like this show.  It’s almost always people I’m meeting for the first time though, so I can never tell them how annoying I find it because I don’t want to offend them.  It’s odd though, because I hate it for the same reasons as you, but a lot of geeks I’ve met like it and so do a lot of otherwise smart people.  But then again, just because someone likes geeky things doesn’t make them intelligent, and just because someone may be smart doesn’t mean they have good taste.  And of course, taste is subjective…but mines still better than everyone else’s. :)

But as annoying as I find the show, I won’t judge someone who likes it.  I’m sure most people have something embarrassing they watch.  Hell, I’ve watched every new Vampire Dairies episode the week they came out for 4 years straight now (or however long it's been on).  I watch it with my girlfriend, so I could use that as an excuse, but I have to admit I find it entertaining.  I also watch New Girl.  I originally watched the first episode just because I find Zooey Daschnel cute, but I actually think it’s pretty funny.

By the way, since I love pretty much all the same tv shows as you, I ended up watching Black Books a while ago due to you talking about it.  Great recommendation!

 You're welcome! Black Books is a fantastic show!

 Zooey Deschanel is fucking adorable, but I can't bring myself to watch New Girl.

 And yeah, I don't judge people who watch it. I mean I watched True Blood for 3 seasons, so whatever. I just get annoyed by people saying I should watch it, and that it's the smartest sitcom around and stuff like that, so I thought I'd throw my opinion out there.

The big problem with most Network T.V. comedies is that they are obsessed with sex and relationships over making us laugh. Comedies were better when they didn't have to rely on that stuff. I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, All In The Family and others didn't rely on that crud  to make people laugh. Night Court had Dan Fielding and nothing more and that was a brilliant show. Today, every "non-family" sitcom is about getting laid and it's old now. 

That's fine. I don't watch Network T.V. anyway. 

I know lots of people who think The Big Bang Theory is a hoot. Why, I don't know. The characters are annoying stereotypes. I've never met anybody like Sheldon or Leonard in my 41 years.  

I will say that if they ever make a biographic film about John Waters, Jim Parsons would  be perfect for the role.

Glee fans are worse, though. Nothing like a show that shoves reality into it when people watch T.V. to get away from it.

To be fair, Night Court had an elderly person doing something wild and crazy gag in EVERY episode. It was far from perfect.

I have nothing wrong with sexual humour as long as it isn't the only type used. A good innuendo or even straight up dirty joke can be hilarious if it's used among other forms of humour.

Meh, I like both BBT and Two and a Half Men pre-Kutcher, and I'm an agnostic geek that also likes 30 Rock. Always found Scrubs kinda boring, though, yet Garden State is one of my favorite movies.

Really? How do you find Scrubs boring? I swear the creator had ADD. Every season after 4 seriously sucks though., meaning it hasn't been good since like 2005.

Well, maybe that's it. I usually catch it through re-runs, although I'm pretty sure I caught those since before 2005 ; I like the characters, but usually I find the jokes dull. Sometimes the mean doctor will give me a chuckle, but that's about it.

Find an episode from seasn 2. That was the show's prime. If you don't laugh, the show isn't for you, but there are episodes in that season where I nearly cried laughing.

I tangentially like TBBT because i know people like Sheldon (and i work with children) but it is near the bottom end of the comedy spectrum i'll admit.

Oh, someone mentioned The IT Crowd, now THAT'S an excellent series 

Yeah, I mentioned it at the end of the blog, and Joquaim mentioned it. Tis a brilliant show, but I find that Black Books was better.

I strongly dislike this show for many of the same reasons you do - it just simply isn't funny. I always imagined the creative process behind the show to be something akin to the producers being suits who were douchebags in high school, high-fiving because they "totally pegged those nerds with the Nintendo joke, Yeah Bruh!!" The early seasons of The Office were funny because they reflected a truth, a sometimes exaggerrated truth, but a truth none the less of the awkward atmosphere of office employment. And agreed that awareness doesn't always equate to intelligence - the world is full of morons who ravenously combat logic and forward-thinking ideas with mind-numbing stupidity.

Every generation has their time when the mainstream becomes very aware of, and co-opts, counter-culture: skinny jeans (started out as a hardcore/scene thing, at least here in the states), glasses becoming fashionable, two of the biggest shows on TV being about a zombie apocalypse comic and pseudo-medieval fantasy novels, gaming becoming the most lucrative entertainment industry, etc. While usually this leads to dumbing down of challenging material for the head and ass-scratching masses, I like to hope that exposure to these things can have an enlightening effect; that one more Game of Thrones will lead to one less Two and a Half Men.

Bit off topic, but have you seen the U.K. version of 'Being Human'? The states version is utter balls, but Seasons 1-3 of the U.K. BH, especially the finale of 3, are pretty damn good.

Yeah, I haven't seen past season 2 of being human because I got distracted, but it is a damn good show. 

 And yeah, geek culture has really been accepted. I mean the explosion of GoT, Walking Dead, and others are proof of that, but they haven't really been dumbed down at all, which is great.

Agreed! It doesn't seem that they watered down TWD or GoT at all, which is awesome to see. I was surprised they even made parts of GoT more brutal than the books were!

And just wait til you get to Season 3 of Being Human - shit gets craaaazy!!

 The Walking Dead is a bit watered down. The main character was supposed to die in it, and there are a few other characters they didn't kill of because they were likable.

I shall definitely get back into Being Human. I did really like the show when I first watched it.

I thought I might like the show, but five minutes into it, I stopped because I just felt like it's for nongeeks so they can laugh at us. Some of the so called jokes make me angry because I take an interest in Chemistry, Math, and Video Games seriously.

It's odd, it's like some of the writers treat the subjects with respect, and others just want to mock the shit out of them. But yeah, it is shit.

Big Bang Theory's jokes revolve around what sells the best on t-shirts, and they have a laugh track.  So yeah, I don't like it either.

I think that's the best description of its jokes I've heard.

The laugh track tells them it's funny, so they laugh.   It's like the bell rings and the dogs drool thing.  What's that called.... Publo's something?  Damn, I can't remember anything from school. 

Pavlov's dogs lol

Thanks! 

Agreed. The writers really Brittad it.

Those no good b's...

I just can't relate to the characters. I can't relate to their income,can't relate to the way they dress, and certainly cannot relate to their rather successful dating lives. Sure, they're nerds but they reflect the "young Bill Gates" kind of nerds. (Aka, privileged and successful)

 Yeah. I mean, who in college is that priveledged, can afford that much etc? Most of us barely survive until we're out the door lol.

Pretty much. I remember being in college and I was broke 99.9% of the time!

Big Bang Theory is just not my cup of tea. The IT crowd (mentioned several times in the comments section) rules! My favourite line ever from that tremendous series is below. Enjoy!

Bahaha, I love the "I'm sorry for your loss, MOVE ON!" bit, and "I'm disabled!"

Oh yeah the disabled episode is awesome. 'Chairman wow'

I thought it was ok, but I only saw the about half the 1st season.  I wasn't interested in it enough to continue watching it.  It surprises me what shows are popular.  I freaking hate How I Meet Your Mother and I assume a lot of people loved that show because it ran for so long.  People like they like.  I actually liked Two and a Half Men for the first couple seasons and then that turned into complete shit. 

I didn't mind season 2 and 3 of How I Met Your Mother. The seasons after that are dreadful, though. Unlike The Big Bang Theory, there is some clever comedy in there, which you don't often see in a show like that.

Meh, I still like the show. I never saw anything offensive and it's just something I like to watch to pass time. Although I do agree with the constant overuse of the laugh track. It's just annoying.

 That's the problem. It's so average and innoffensive to the majority that it has no real personality of it's own. It's you're average sitcom, with your average sitcom jokes except it's about a topic that the writers don't really understand - geeks.

Dumb, it most certainly is.  It also reinforces prevailing gender stereotypes that portrays women, however stupid they are - like penny, amongst others - as almost always right even when they are almost always wrong.  It lauds celeb worship and corporate-led pop culture and fashion.  This is feminism gone bitchy, and promoted as the norm.  No self-respecting person would afford it any credit whatsoever.  That said, it indictes the increasing degeneration of America and the rising prominence and dominance of the juvenile.  In effect, it perpetuates the immature, self-absorbed, and what is fast becoming the American mindset, globally.

Gone for good is the America and intelligence it took to create and appreciate shows like Taxi, MASH, and Cheers, amongst others.  This is the Orwellian newspeak in sit-com form.

Ed

a2ed.com

 While I agree with most of what you said about The Big Bang Theory, I disagree that there is not intelligence in American programming. Arrested Development just got another season, Community is still going, as is Parks and Recreation and Louie. 30 Rock just ended, as did the office. There is an abundance of clever programming made by Americans, you just need to know where to look.

What you're talking about is gems in a Pool of mud.  When it comes to American productions of the past from the 40s to the 80s, there was far more profundity, wit, and intelligent plots and dialogue.  That is not generally the case now unless one 'knows where to look'.

 It's inevitable.  The rise of the juvenile plus the fetishisation of the present has finally and conclusively started and expedited intellectual and creative human degeneration.  To think that almost little other than the overly-generous use of the 'laughing machine' can deliver success to this nonsensical series is scary.  

Ed

a2ed.com